Hall Middle School Teacher Newsletters 2025-26

January 9, 2026

Science

On Thursday, 1/22, the entire 7th Grade is invited to The Lark Theater in Larkspur. It is an easy walk to Magnolia Avenue where students will watch Racing Extinction, a documentary about the 6th mass extinction and endangered species. Permission form were emailed, given out to students and a copy is in Google Classroom. Currently students are focused on the ecosystem for their chosen endangered species. They have to identify predators, prey, competitors and even keystone, umbrella and indicator species in their IUCN RedList species. Ask:

What species are you saving? Tell me all about it.
Show me your food web and explain all the relationships.
Did I sign the permission slip for you to attend the FREE field trip?

Spanish 1

- We continue to expand our vocabulary and starting with a topic that everybody loves to talk about: Food!
- In our current unit we not only share with others the food that we like or don't like but we also talk about daily routines and exercise habits that contribute to a healthy lifestyle.
- In addition to learning new vocabulary and expanding on the basics of grammar we are beginning to practice more 0f the advanced skills such as Oral Communication, Listening Comprehension, Reading and Writing. These skills take several years to master but practicing with simple sentences right now will make a big difference in the future.

Math 7

We are finishing up with Inequalities (write, solve, and graph them). We have also been taking our second i-Ready diagnostic assessment this week. Starting next week, we will be working with the percent equation and the percent proportion to find the part, whole, or percent based on a given situation. This unit will include finding the percent of increase or decrease and percents involved in taxes, tips, discounts, and mark-ups.

Pre-Algebra

We are finishing up with writing, solving, and graphing inequalities. We have also been taking our second i-Ready diagnostic assessment this week. Starting next week, we will be learning about the properties of exponents and simplifying expressions that have variables and exponents using these exponent rules. This will lead into learning about writing numbers in scientific notation and using the properties of exponents to do operations on numbers in scientific notation.

PE 7

Rembrandt - PE/Rembrandt: Our first unit of the new year entails learning more specifics about what it means to live a healthy lifestyle. Students will learn the fundamentals of exercise physiology, healthy food choices, and the role of sleep in helping to keep your body healthy and strong. Students will produce a one week workout plan at the end of the unit to show their knowledge and understanding. We will continue to have a variety of fitness activities and whole class games each week, weather permitting.

Corbolotti: Corbolotti: Students did a great job during our Nutrition and Fitness unit, showing strong effort and understanding. This week, we are transitioning into table tennis, where students will focus on basic skills, rules, and sportsmanship while building hand–eye coordination and quick reactions.

7th Grade Medieval and Early Modern World History

In the Court of the Great Khan

The 5,600-mile journey was over. It had taken young Marco Polo, his father, and his uncle three and a half years to travel from their home in Italy to Cathay, Singapore. Half a century earlier, this long journey would have been impossible. But in the year 1275, many changes had taken place and peace reigned along the entire Silk Road, from the Mediterranean to the eastern borders of China.

A New Dynasty Emerges in China

In The Ming Dynasty, you will learn about the spread of Chinese culture and the growth of the empire. You will discover how overseas trade impacted and expanded Chinese society and how later China cut off these overseas expeditions. Finally, you will look at the impact of all these events on China’s economy and culture.

Intermediate Band

This week, we completed a fun tune called, "Funky Penguins." We recorded it and have started a new piece called, "El Manto Dorado," a spanish march. This is a grade 2 and a jump up from the grade 1.5's we've been playing, so I'm looking for extra practice from students at home in order to make this thing happen.

Language Arts

Unit Focus: Reading for Understanding -- Epidemics

We have begun the first (of three) units in our new Module on Epidemics. Students should be reading the recently assigned book -- Patient Zero, by Marilee Peters -- nearly every night. Please make sure you are seeing the book come home with them most days! Ask them questions about what they're reading! Some of it is super gross, so I'm sure they'd love to tell you about it!

The Performance Task they will perform at the end of the module will be a PODCAST! (And yes, we will be sharing the links with you!) I encourage you to find podcasts to listen to with your students between now and mid-February and talk to them about some of the different features that podcasters use to engage their listeners.

i-Ready Diagnostic

We have just begun the i-Ready diagnostic and we'll be doing that assessment in small chunks over the next week. Please encourage your student to take the assessment seriously and do their best. It is our most effective "dipstick" for determining their growth on grade-level standards, and the more accurate their results, the better-matched their "My Path" lessons will be to their actual learning level and needs. i-Ready assessments can only be done during class time, and students need their Chromebook so please make sure they are charging that Chromebook each night!

ART

Our art students are finishing the semester with an exciting self-directed final project! Using the skills and lessons they’ve learned so far, each student is designing a unique piece of artwork that reflects their own creativity and interests. I’m really excited to see what they come up with!

It has been a wonderful first semester here at Hall, and I’ve truly enjoyed getting to know our middle school artists. We’re proud of their hard work and can’t wait to see what the future holds as they continue on to STEM classes!

STEM

STEM - Hope everyone had a great break! We wrapped up mousetrap cars pre-break with our SPEED and DISTANCE challenge and then de-constructed our cars this week. We have officially moved on to our last project for this session which is the designing and construction of our cube puzzles! Students will work in teams to make a cube as difficult as possible culminating in a class competition next week to see who made their cube the hardest to solve.

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